| As I Lay Dying | |
|---|---|
 First edition cover |
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| Author | William Faulkner |
| Genre(s) | Novel, modernist literature, southern gothic |
| Publication date | 1930 |
As I Lay Dying is a novel by the American author William Faulkner. The novel was written in six weeks while Faulkner was working at a power plant, published in 1930, and described by Faulkner as a "tour de force". It is Faulkner's fifth novel and consistently ranked among the best novels of 20th century literature.[1][2][3][4] The title derives from Book XI of Homer's The Odyssey, wherein Agamemnon speaks to Odysseus: "As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades."
The novel is known for its stream of consciousness writing technique, multiple narrators, and varying chapter lengths; the shortest chapter in the book consists of just five words.
Contents |
Plot summary
The book is told in stream of consciousness writing style by 15 different narrators in 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her family's quest—noble or selfish—to honor her wish to be buried in the town of Jefferson.
As is the case in much of Faulkner's work, the story is set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, which Faulkner referred to as "my apocryphal county", a fictional rendition of the writer's home of Lafayette County in that same state.
Characters
Addie Bundren
Addie is the wife of Anse and the mother of Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman. She had an extramarital affair with her preacher Reverend Whitfield which led to the conception and birth of her third child, Jewel. For his illegitimacy, Addie favors Jewel over her other children, as explained in a flashback ominously spoken from the dead (although it is possible that the chapter was placed out of chronological order, as several others appear to be). As revenge on Anse, she makes him promise her that he will have her buried in Jefferson, knowing that the journey will be long and difficult. (It is also possible that this 'wish' was concocted by Anse, to give him a pretext for being in Jefferson—where he can find a new Mrs. Bundren).
Side Note: Addie's negative views on life began to fade when Cash was born. He made her feel whole and replaced her feelings: (positive aspect of this is questionable—perhaps a numbed view towards life is presented. The reader is able to discern that she quite possibly hates her children. Not a maternal figure.) This view is changed when she becomes pregnant with Darl. She blames Anse for all this and so had an affair.
Anse Bundren
Anse is Addie's widower, the father of all the children but Jewel. Anse is portrayed as lazy and greedy by various characters. He is under (or merely disseminates) the impression that he cannot work because he had a horrible illness as a child, and breaking a sweat will result in his death. He views going to Jefferson as an excuse to get a pair of false teeth, and after Addie's burial he hastily remarries.
Cash Bundren
Cash is a skilled and helpful carpenter and the eldest son of the family. He is most likely between the ages of 28 and 30. In the beginning of the book, he is a complete utilitarian, his first chapter showing a thought process similar to an instruction manual. Addie loves Cash because he is the first child she feels a real connection with, as shown in the chapter she narrates.
As Addie's death approaches, she watches him build her coffin through the bedroom window. Though some characters criticize his proximity as distasteful and discourteous, Cash insists that she enjoys monitoring his work. During the funeral, Addie's body is placed reversed into the coffin by the town women who have attended her funeral, so that her burial dress fans out in the space where her head should be. Although Cash does not say anything to the women, he is very uneasy and upset about this, as he has put a lot of hard work to create the coffin in a way that fits his mother's weight and height perfectly; the misplacement of her body in the box causes the coffin to become off-balance.
During the novel, Cash breaks his leg, which was previously broken when he fell off a church roof. Anse attempts to "fix it" by pouring cement over the broken leg. The cement heats and swells, essentially cooking Cash's leg and cutting off blood flow. The family, realizing that his foot will soon fall off, begins to chip away at the cement, obviously causing Cash an enormous amount of pain. After he falls into the river, Cash begins to move away from pure utilitarianism, and by the end of the book he becomes an example of balance between intellectualism and utilitarianism.
Darl Bundren
The second eldest of Addie's children, Darl is about two years younger than Cash. He is extremely aware of details, and can read people incredibly. However, he sometimes uses these traits to taunt his family, such as when he asks Jewel "Who is your father, Jewel?". He also seems to have extrasensory perception: he narrates his mother's death as it is happening in his absence. Darl is an example of pure intellectualism. He is always thinking, but the accounts of other characters show that he does very little actual work. He is initially perhaps the sanest one in the novel despite his knowledge that the journey to bury his mother's body in Jefferson is madness. Many people, especially Vernon Tull, tend to view Darl as strange. He attempts to burn Addie in her coffin in the barn in an attempt to put an end to the disgrace to his mother, a fate from which Jewel saves her (in order to fulfill her wishes). Darl is the most articulate character and objective narrator in the book, therefore narrates 19 of the 59 chapters. At the end of the novel, Darl is sent to a mental facility in Jackson, for burning down a barn in the effort to do away with Addie's coffin.
Jewel Bundren
Jewel is the third of the Bundren children, and is most likely around nineteen years of age. He is a half-brother to the other children and the favorite of Addie. He is the illegitimate son of Addie and Reverend Whitfield. The novel reveals that Jewel, after sneaking off every night and clearing several acres of his neighbor's land in order to make the money, has bought a spotted horse. His ne'er-do-well "father", Anse, disapproves of this, complaining that he'd have to feed the horse. Jewel tells Anse that he would kill his horse before it ate any of Anse's food. After the mule team drowns as the family attempts to cross the dangerously flooded river, Anse bargains his children's money as well as Jewel's horse to pay for a new team. Whereas Vardaman equates Addie after death with a fish, Darl represents the situation as it bears on Jewel with the phrase "Jewel's mother is a horse". Jewel shows a strong work ethic, and he highly values independence. He is very subjective, and often shows strong feelings of anger towards his family and animals.
Dewey Dell Bundren
Dewey Dell is the only daughter of Anse and Addie Bundren, and is seventeen years old, the second youngest of the Bundren children. Her name is a yonic allusion to her archetypal role as the embodiment of female sexuality in the novel. She is caught in a problematic situation when she becomes pregnant with the baby of a local farmhand, Lafe MacCallum. She, Darl, and Lafe are the only characters who initially know about the pregnancy. Dewey Dell is afraid and desperate for an abortion, but is unable to pay for it with the ten dollars given to her by Lafe. She goes to a pharmacist in Jefferson, but is instead treated by a store clerk named Skeet MacGowan, who poses as the "pharmacist" in order to take advantage of Dewey Dell and her ignorance. He provides her with random medication that he claims will help with her problem, taken in combination with his own "treatment", which is in fact rape. Though Darl and Dewey Dell initially seem to be allies within the group of siblings, she is the one who notifies the authorities of Darl's arson.
Vardaman Bundren
Vardaman is the youngest Bundren child, and estimates of his age vary widely (perhaps somewhere between seven and ten). He is present as his mother takes her last breath, and from that moment on faces trauma and confusion as he struggles to understand what has happened. Vardaman goes through delusional periods in which he believes that his mother is still alive, in the form of a fish that he had caught, and goes as far as drilling holes in the top of her coffin so that she can "breathe". Given his young age it is only natural that he equates the death of his mother with his only other experience of the phenomenon; the death of the fish he catches. He wants to buy a red toy train when he gets to Jefferson, but when he arrives it is not in the store window. He thinks his mother is a fish (as a metaphor).
Vernon Tull
Vernon is a good friend of the Bundrens. He appears in the book to be a good farmer who is not as religious as his wife but often agrees with her. He is often shown to help out the Bundrens, along with many other characters in the book who show a reluctant but unavoidable inclination to assist the useless Anse. He owns a house and farm near the Bundren house and had a bridge spanning a river that had to be crossed to reach Jefferson. It breaks as a result of heavy flooding, forcing the Bundrens to cross at the ford. In the process of crossing, a log hits the wagon, tipping it over, causing Cash to break his leg (the same leg he'd broken previously).
Cora Tull
Cora is the wife of Vernon Tull. She is a neighbor of Addie's who is with her at her death. Cora is very self-righteous and focuses more on her own salvation and "Christian duty" than she actually does on people. She is very judgmental, and often shows herself to be a hypocrite in the process of judging other people's actions.
Peabody
Peabody is the Bundren's doctor and narrates two chapters of the book. Anse sends for him shortly before Addie's death, but this is far too late for Peabody to do anything, and he is able to do nothing more than watch Addie die. He seems to be frustrated and growing tired of the medical profession, and now sees death as "merely a function of the mind."
Lafe
Lafe is a local farmer who impregnates Dewey Dell. He gave her $10 to get an abortion on the way to Jefferson.
Whitfield
Whitfield is the local reverend with whom Addie had an affair. Though Jewel is the resulting illegitimate child, Anse does not learn of the affair. When he hears that Addie is on her death bed, Whitfield goes to the house to finally confess and gain the favor of God, but he reneges on his impulse when, upon visiting the house, he learns that Addie has died. However, he still sees himself as being forgiven in God's eyes, because he had intended to confess.
Literary techniques
Throughout the novel, Faulkner presents fifteen different points of view, each chapter narrated by one character, including Addie, who after dying, expresses her thoughts from the coffin. In 59 chapters titled only by their narrators' names, the characters are developed gradually through each other's perceptions and opinions, Darl's predominating.
Like James Joyce before him, Faulkner stands among the pioneers of stream of consciousness. He first used the technique in The Sound and the Fury, and it gives As I Lay Dying its distinctly intimate tone, through the monologues of the tragically flawed Bundrens and the passers-by they encounter. The story helped found the Southern Renaissance and directs a great deal of effort as it progresses to reflections on being and existence, the existential metaphysics of everyday life.
The one chapter narrated by Addie Bundren helped bring issues of feminism and motherhood in literature to the fore, as her voice is clearly expressed only after her death. Except for Jewel and Cash, Addie either dislikes or acts dismissively toward all her children. Jewel and Cash are profoundly affected by her regard for them.
Importance
As I Lay Dying is consistently ranked among the best novels of 20th century literature.[2][5][6] The novel has been reprinted by the Modern Library,[7] the Library of America, and numerous other publishers, including Chatto and Windus in 1970,[8] Random House in 1990,[9] Tandem Library in 1991,[10] and Vintage Books in 1996.[11] Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 for his novels prior to that date, among them this book.
The novel has also directly influenced a number of other critically acclaimed books, including British author Graham Swift's 1996 Booker Prize-winning novel Last Orders[12] and Suzan-Lori Parks's Getting Mother's Body: A Novel, which is a reimagining of Faulkner's novel from an African American point of view.[13][14]
The Grammy-nominated metalcore band As I Lay Dying derived its name from this novel.
References
- ^ The Modern Library lists it among the top 100 recent novels, accessed Jan. 2, 2009, as does best 100 novels of all times lists it, accessed Jan. 2, 2009.
- ^ a b The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to World Literature by Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major, Collins, 1999.
- ^ The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages by Harold Bloom, Riverhead Trade, 1995.
- ^ 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Ackroyd (Foreword), Peter Boxall (Editor) Universe Publishers, 2006.
- ^ The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages by Harold Bloom, Riverhead Trade, 1995.
- ^ 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Ackroyd (Foreword), Peter Boxall (Editor) Universe Publishers, 2006.
- ^ Modern Library's list of the top 100 recent novels, accessed Jan. 2, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 0701106654
- ^ ISBN 067973225X
- ^ ISBN 0808514938
- ^ ISBN 0099479311
- ^ "A Swift rewrite, or a tribute?" by Chris Blackhurst, The Independent (London), March 9, 1997.
- ^ "Review of Getting Mother’s Body by Suzan-Lori Parks" by Dan Schneider, Cosmoetica, 4/30/2005, accessed Jan. 2, 2009.
- ^ Women Pulitzer Playwrights: Biographical Profiles and Analyses of the Plays by Carolyn Casey Craig, McFarland, 2004, page 270.
External links
- On publishing the novel
- Literapedia Page
- As I Lay Dying analysis and resources for teachers and students
| Preceded by The Sound and the Fury |
Novels set in Yoknapatawpha County | Succeeded by Sanctuary |
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